Justice: Next owner must weigh GM question

Among Jim Crane’s first difficult decisions will be whether to keep Ed Wade as the Astros’ general manager. Firing him would be popular. It might also be wrong.

Yes, friends, this is the day your friendly local columnist wrestles a bear. He’s going to tell you why the general manager of a very bad baseball team should not be fired.

Obviously, if Crane can do better than Ed Wade, he should. If Andrew Friedman would leave the Tampa Bay Rays to come back to his hometown, I’ll help work up a nice going-away party for Wade.

Friedman is baseball’s best general manager, and — let’s be blunt about this — he’s better than Ed Wade. Jon Daniels with the Rangers is better. So is Doug Melvin (Brewers) and Dan O’Dowd (Rockies). OK, there might another one or two.

But they’re unlikely to leave their current jobs to move to our little corner of paradise. And so here’s hoping Crane gives Wade a chance.

When Nolan Ryan took over the Rangers, he inherited both a general manager (Daniels) and a manager (Ron Washington). He might not have been impressed with either at the beginning.

Instead of firing them, Ryan did what good executives are supposed to do. He sat back, watched, listened and, in the end, decided they were both worth keeping.

I’m guessing Wade can make a pretty good case for himself if Crane gives him a chance.

That’s just a guess, because Wade is not going to do it publicly.

Drayton McLane hired him, and to McLane he’ll be a loyal soldier to the end. So if you want to know what kind of shape the Astros were in when Wade was hired almost four years ago, you’ll have to go elsewhere for the answers.

Like here.

As bad as the Astros are now, they’re in significantly better shape than when Wade arrived in 2007. None of that improvement has shown up in the won-lost record, but baseball is funny like that.

As Wade told McLane when he interviewed for the job, one bad draft can set an organization back three years, and the Astros had four or five weak ones.

They’ve missed in the first round. They’ve missed in the late rounds. And the funny thing is, almost all the people responsible for the mistakes are long gone.

McLane is responsible for some of the problems, mostly by cutting corners. In the past, he hasn’t been shy about spending on aging veterans, and there’s nothing wrong with that unless you cut costs in player development.

McLane did exactly that, and Wade’s greatest accomplishment has been convincing his boss about the importance of the draft and player development.

So here’s why the Astros are on the right path, and here’s why Wade has done a lot of good work virtually no one knows about.

He has overhauled the scouting staff and replaced instructors and managers up and down the minor-league food chain. He has convinced McLane to get draft picks signed and into uniform. He has also convinced McLane that the Astros must have a significant presence in the Dominican Republic.

Guess who gave out the second-highest signing bonus in the Dominican Republic last year.

Yes, your Houston Astros. They gave 16-year-old outfielder Ariel Ovando $2.6 million. The Astros think he’s a special talent, who might be ready for the big leagues by around 2015.

How about that double-play combination at Lexington? Delino DeShields and Gio Mier could be ready about that time as well.

There’ll be players ready before that. Sometime after Crane takes control of the Astros this summer, righthander Jordan Lyles and outfielder J.D. Martinez could be making their major league debuts.

In other words, Wade’s good work is just beginning to pay dividends. Do the Astros still have a weak minor league system? Absolutely. But for the first time in years, there’s reason for optimism.

Wade is doing for the Astros pretty much the same thing he did for the Phillies. During his time as general manager, many of the core players of the teams that won two National League pennants arrived.

Wade was fired before getting a chance to see his good work pay off, and he may be fired before the Astros are good again.

But he’s not the guy who gave Carlos Lee $100 million, and he’s not the guy who whiffed on all those draft picks. He’s not the guy who traded for Jason Jennings or showed Andy Pettitte the door. He’s not the guy responsible for Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio getting old.

He’s the guy who inherited dozens of mistakes, and then was charged with cutting the payroll from $108 million to $72 million while also keeping the big league team competitive.

This he has been unable to do.

Regardless of whether Wade is around the next few years or not, someone is going to benefit from the unseen good work he has done. If he’s gone by then, here’s hoping someone remembers he did his part.